Thursday, June 21, 2007

EXCLUSIVE! COMPASS, REWIND, RENDITION!

So I've got something fresh and exciting for y'all for a change! There's this convention going on here in NYC this week for movie distribution and what-nots, and I kinda sorta got access to it and saw some things that the general public ain't seen yet. Go me, I know.

But without further ado, here are my exclusives:

The Golden Compass - I saw a little under 10 minutes of footage, which played like an extended version of the trailer that everyone's seen and swooned over already. Scenes that were needfully short for that first trailer were more fleshed here - there was a good deal of footage of Dakota Blue Richards that proved she's an exceptional choice for Lyra. Basically, this extended trailer gave a richer view of the story's progression - I got to see more of the scene with Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) discussing "dust" to the scholars at Oxford and, while Craig may not have been an obvious choice for Asriel to me, it looks like he'll be really terrific in the role.

There was a lot about the Gobblers stealing children and a scary scene of Mrs. Coulter's skin-crawling Golden Monkey Daemon (ugh, it creeps me out) pawing at Lyra's friend's - the little boy whose name I'm forgetting - Daemon, whose kidnapping by said Gobblers sends Lyra on her quest.

There was more footage of the Daemons in general, which was terrific to see; we see the kids Daemons constantly in flux as they scamper across one of Oxford's rooftops - a puppy that starts to fall and shifts into a bird then a butterfly to get its grip, and so on. The effects were nearly finished, but apparently not totally, but they looked amazing already.

Got to see a lot more footage of Nicole Kidman slinking about in an endless array of shimmery gold dresses looking phenomenal as she romances Lyra into contentment before Lyra figures out she's no good. Got to see Lyra interacting with Serafina (Eva Green) some, including the scene where Serafina tells Lyra that, depending on which side the witches take in the approaching battle, the next time they meet they could be friends or enemies. Green sounds and looks fantastic - more perfect casting, that.

Didn't see a lot more of Iorek (the armored polar bear, and my favorite character), though there was a shot of him sitting on his throne which made the geek in me squeal.

Overall, the new footage just convinced me - and I needed convincing - that director Chris Weitz was a great choice; the world looks and feels exactly like it did when reading the books, and I am about to start a running count of the days til this one hits theaters December 7th.

ETA - and I just remembered, there was a very brief shot of Mrs. Coulter in what I'm guessing was the room where the children are divorced from their Daemons - it was big and shiny and metallic with this cat-scan-looking machine to the side. Not exactly how I'd pictured it but creepy nonetheless.

Be Kind, Rewind - So I got to see what looked like an early cut - the footage was pretty raw looking - of the trailer for Michel Gondry's next film, starring Jack Black and Mos Def as video store employees with a problem: namely, Jack Black's brain is magnetized and he's erased all the videos in their store. The opening scene of the trailer sets this up - when Jack Black is in close-up the film actually goes all wavy like on an old, screwed-up videotape, which was a nice touch - and then we get on to the real business of the movie: namely, getting to watch Jack Black and Mos Def reenacting scenes from old movies. A good chunk of time is spent watching them reenact scenes from Ghostbusters, including Jack Black's awful (in a funny way) take on that movie's familiar theme song - we get to hear Mos Def say "I got slimed" which was the highlight for me. We see that their homemade versions become big hits in the neighborhood and suddenly the two of them become quasi-celebrities; there's a fun montage of scenes from their different movies - 2001 and Boyz In The Hood stand out in my memory, the latter incolving Jack Black in an afro. But then The Man, in the form of Sigourney Weaver - YAY! - shows up and threatens their new business with talk of copyright infringement and what not. And then Mia Farrow shows up and says that these boy's movies got heart! It was only a couple minutes long but it looks a thousand times mainstreamier than The Science of Sleep was (a movie I liked but didn't love). A fun trailer that has me hyped for the movie even more.

Rendition - Yes, I got to see what looked like a finished trailer for Jake Gyllenhaal's next movie - talk about making a boy's night. The trailer starts, though, with setting up Reese Witherspoon and her Middle Eastern husband's happy life, before he's taken aside in an airport and a black hood's thrown over his head and he disappears into some secret prison where they take off all his clothes and tie him to a chair. Reese, big bellied pregnant, and her other child are waiting for her husband at the airport, he doesn't show, she goes to Peter Sarsgaard for assistance. Meryl Streep is The Man, i.e. Goverment, here and she looks terrific and has what appears to be a Southern accent going; her role, at least from the trailer, was reminding me of what she did in The Manchurian Candidate. Jake doesn't show up until like halfway through the trailer, with his hair all slicked back and one specific shot that made his blue eyes glow and my knees go wobbly - the trailer builds to this crescendo of Reese wailing about where's my husband and Meryl staring iciliy and Jake grabbing the husband by the throat and yelling that they need to know why he made some phone calls - it was all very dramatic. I kept waiting for Angelina Jolie in brown-face to slide into frame, though. But everybody looked on their game and Gavin Hood impressed me with Tsotsi and... Jake... so I'm sold.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You saw footage from the Golden Compass???!!! Did you see anything that suggests that they kept some of the religious elements in the movie? In the trailer, Iorek bursts out from a church with figures of saints on the wall; the "that is heresy" line... Anyway, I'm glad you're doing a countdown!

Jason Adams said...

From what I remember - and I only watched the footage once and wasn't able to take notes or anything - the religious stuff was sorta prominent, in a "read between the lines" sort of way, in the scene with Daniel Craig addressing the scholars on "dust" - you could tell that the religious men in the room w, though.re very uncomfortable with what he was talking about.

I have a feeling a lot of that is going to be turned into subtext and not right in your face.

Anonymous said...

YES! I love evil-Streep!

Anonymous said...

Did you think Nicole did a convincing Job of bringing out the eeriness in Mrs. Coulter that you mentioned, or is she jus there for wearing dresses and being glamorous?